Ignoring It
by Prineline
Summary: One night, Maka realizes that for some reason and at some point she'd started having feelings for her partner, friend, and roommate: Soul. Afraid to cause a rift in their relationship, she opts to just ignore her feelings. But will she be able to continue ignoring them when there are so many others willing and trying to steal his interest away from her?
1. 1 Realization

The thunder rumbled darkly outside as rain pelted heavily upon a glass window. Through the glass a lone figure was visible on a mess of pillows and sheets, unmoving. Staring. Dark green eyes gazed unfocused in the darkness.

It wasn't fair.

Maka's eyes narrowed as the thought continued to run itself through her head. How could he do this to her? It was supposed to be so simple. So easy. A bond between a weapon and meister. Partners set to help rid the world of kishin and madness. Simple… easy…

Then why did this happen? Why did she have to— no, she shouldn't think about it anymore. Maybe she could forget about it. Ignore it. Maybe she—

"Maka?…"

The door to her room cracked open to let in a small sliver of light. A mess of unkempt white hair slipped through crack as the owner of the voice continued to push slowly into the room. Red eyes scanned over her still body, only able to make out her back nestled under green blankets. Soft footsteps alerted Maka to the person making their way towards her bed. Her body shifted as she felt them sit beside her. A hand touched her shoulder.

"Maka…" her eyes snapped open, "I know you're awake."

"Soul," eyes shut tight again, "what do you want?"

She didn't move to face him, but he knew that she'd listen as she was. "You've been…strange lately." He sighed, " I can't seem to figure out what you're thinking anymore. I used to be able to but recently you seem a bit off— I mean, more than you usually are." His small attempt at a joke didn't seem to phase her.

His sigh was deeper this time. "All I'm saying is that I'm here, okay? Y'know, if something's bothering you and stuff?" His blonde meister remained still. There was nothing else he could say. Maka felt him stand up from the mattress heard him head for the door. He stopped and spared one last glance at his partner. He wasn't stupid. He could sense that she was still awake. He just didn't know why she wasn't willing to talk to him.

He scratched the back of his head and clicked his tongue in frustration. "Tsk, How uncool…" he muttered and shut the door behind him.

A rustle of sheets signaled Maka turning in her bed to finally face the door of her room. Staring after her partner, Maka pulled the covers closer to her face. Once again she turned over, hoping that facing away from her partner would help her to forget what she had just realized.

How could he do this to her? She wondered. How could— How could she do this to herself?

A sigh escaped the meister before she closed her eyes to finally go to sleep.

"How could I let myself fall in love with him?"

* * *

That was almost two weeks ago and now the weapon/ meister duo were on a mission fighting a kishin who'd been terrorizing a small village.

**THWACK**!

"MAKA!" Soul yelled in his scythe form after his partner was caught off guard and thrown into the side of a barn by the kishin's mutated claws. She hastily stood and leaped to the side before it could impale her into the worn down wall. The scythe could hear her hiss slightly, no doubt from an injury on her shoulder she had gotten earlier in the fight and was probably made worse by her collision with the barn's wall. "Focus." he warned.

She simply nodded her head and muttered a 'yea' before running again towards the kishin, who had stuck it's claw too far into the wall and was now vulnerable to attack. Jumping high into the air, Maka swung Soul down just as it wrenched itself from the barn. Its body decayed quickly to leave a glowing, corrupted soul in its wake. Throwing him in the air, the young meister dusted off her coat while Soul devoured the floating orb noisily. She winced when a shooting pain reminded her of her shoulder.

"Hey," she looked up to her partner and saw the concern in his red eyes, "You okay?"

She walked to him and they started for his motorcycle that they dropped off nearby the farm's abandoned stables. "Yea, I'll just get it checked by Stein when we get back. No big deal." She managed to hide a strain in her voice. The receding adrenaline rush was slowly revealing how much she'd really hurt herself.

"You gonna be okay on the bike?"

Olive green narrowed at the thought of how the constant vibrations of the two-wheeled vehicle would probably increase to her growing pains. It wasn't just her shoulder now. Her back was starting to hurt to. "I'll manage."

They got on the bike and while the motorcycle did make her shoulder and back harder to ignore, Maka didn't want to worry her partner so much. She'd been through worse and she didn't want him lecturing her about being more careful after such an easy mission. She could ignore the pain.

What she COULDN'T ignore however was the fast beating of her heart when she had her arms (although somewhat painfully) encircled around Soul's torso to stay on the bike. This had been a problem when they'd first arrived to the village too. And every day when they'd have to ride back from school. And before. She was afraid he'd notice eventually how abnormally fast her heart rate was every time they were so close. He'd ask questions; she'd be unable to lie to him; and then her plan to just 'ignore' her newfound 'feelings' would be for nothing.

Yes, that's what she decided after that horrible night of recognition, realization, and over-thinking. It didn't seem fair to herself to stress about it because she just had so much to do between school and fighting witches and kishin. It didn't seem fair to Soul either she'd reasoned. Telling him would be like forcing her feelings on him because unlike all the other girls, who either chose to stuff letters into his locker or call him out at school, he actually gave some sort of shit about her, being partners and best friends after all. It'd trouble him because she knew he wouldn't be able to reciprocate them and the awkwardness that would stem from confessing would eventually draw them apart.

Maka couldn't have that. So keeping it to herself and simply _ignoring_ her feelings was the best option.

It worked whenever she could distract herself with school, missions, and conversations with people other than Soul because she was good with focusing herself on one objective or person at a time. It was when she was forced to come in close contact with him like now, and when she saw the numerous letters continuously falling out of his locker on a daily basis did she see a flaw in her thought-to-be life-long solution. Her quickening heart beat was out of her control and the raging feelings of jealousy seemed to grow with each passing day.

"Maka?"

His voice took her out of her thoughts.

"You okay now?"

Maka sighed, her thoughts and his worry slightly irritating her. "I'm fine, Soul. I told you that I'd get Stein to patch me up when we get back."

"No, not that." he gruffed. "I mean from before. When you were acting strange a few weeks ago. Whatever it was stop bothering you yet?"

She was afraid of the curiosity in his tone. "Yea, I'm over it." Purposely, she didn't add a 'why do you ask' to her reply. She leaned her cheek against his back and gazed at the passing scenery of forest trees and road.

"Then," _of course he would_, "can you tell me what was bothering you before?"

The meister winced, not from the pain that she was relieved to find slightly refraining, but from how blunt her partner could be. How was she supposed to answer this? "It was stupid." she started, " You don't need to know." _Crap, that'd just make him more—_

"If it was stupid, you'd just tell me. Why don't I need to know? Was it about me?"

Quickly, her head snapped up from his back. Oh how she hated when he'd hit the nail right smack on the head. "Not at all. I just think it's too stupid to think about anymore."

She was glad they'd arrived at the airport and were now heading in for their flight. Hopefully he'd drop it then.

A brow raised at her dodgy-ness. If she wouldn't tell him then it means it was something that really bothered her. And judging from the cruddy lies she was trying to fool him with, it was most likely about him. He just couldn't figure out what he'd done wrong in the past few weeks to upset her so. "Well if you say so." he said before walking for their gate.

He'd get it out of her at some point.


	2. 2 Solution

Turns out her shoulder and back were a lot more serious than Maka thought they were going to be. She walked out of the infirmary with the upper part of her torso completely consumed in bandages and enough pain meds to subdue a rhinoceros.

It wasn't the unpleasantness of the multiple wrappings or the inevitable, heated squawking from Soul about being careful and such that had dampened Maka's mood considerably. No, it was Stein's declaration that she and Soul would be off missions for a few weeks because of the extent of her injuries. _There goes the mission distraction option…_

It was the furrowed brows and troubled expression from this realization that brought Soul out of his overzealous scolding, and back on the topic of her trouble before.

"Maka…" he spoke. It seemed he was saying her name a lot recently. Although it gave her a pleasant feeling in her chest whenever he did, it certainly did not help her chosen 'denial' of the situation.

The weapon gently sat beside her on the couch, making her even more wary of his presence. "So you gonna tell me yet what was bothering you?"

She sighed and looked to the carpet of their living room. "I told you, Soul. I'm over it already."

Sharp teeth clenched slightly. "You and I both know that's a load of bull, Maka. You tell me everything. And I mean: EVERYTHING. If it was stupid then I would've known about it already and you're dodging me means that it's still probably bothering you." He reached out to softly place his hand on her shoulder. "C'mon. Maybe I can help you with whatever it is. You just gotta tell me."

His gentle tone was making the feelings even harder to ignore. Why did he have to be so willing to hear her out whenever she was troubled? No one else would really care. They'd just let her deal with it herself if she said that's what she wanted. But him, he just had to be so adamant about helping her, being there for her. God, no wonder she—yea.

So she caved.

"Well—" **DING DONG**

Saved by a bell. She visibly sighed in relief, not unnoticed by Soul. He narrowed his eyes at her before standing up to answer whoever had interrupted them. It wasn't two seconds after he unlocked the door that it opened with a **BANG** to reveal—

"YOUR GOD HAS ARRIVED!"

Black Star. Of course. He stomped proudly over to Maka with an ever-complacent Tsubaki behind him. The blunette bent down slightly to examine the visible bandages around Maka's shoulders. "Man, you got banged up pretty bad didn't you?" he noted plainly.

Both her and the demon weapon sweatdropped at his blunt words. Tsubaki smiled in apology. "Sorry Maka, are you okay though?"

The meister returned her smile, "Yea, just need to rest for a couple of weeks."

Black Star scoffed and bent his arms behind his head in a carefree posture. "Just what I'd expect from one of my disciples." He grinned, "Though if you were a god like me you wouldn't have gotten hurt so badly."

A closed fist brought itself down on his head before one of Maka's heavy novels could reach it's target. "Shut up." A more than irritated scythe grounded, suddenly appearing before them after wedging himself from between the door and a wall. "She hasn't been feeling well lately."

Black Star growled loudly from the floor and a glaring contest ensued with equally angered red eyes. "SOUL! HOW COULD YOU HIT SUCH A GOD-LIKE PERSON SUCH AS ME!—"

While the boys started squabbling, Tsubaki turned to her injured friend. "You haven't been feeling well? Are you sick or something, Maka?"

Green eyes cast downward. "No, just been thinking about things lately."

The older girl sat beside Maka and stared at her with worry. "What kind of things? Do you wanna talk about it?"

The meister shook her head. "No, I'll forget about it soon enough. It's just something I've realized recently."

Tsubaki perked up at the word "realized" and leaned to whisper in Maka's ear. "Is it about…Soul?"

"HOW DO YOU?—" her exasperated reply was ignored by the still-quarreling teens. She quickly collected herself and brought her voice down so only Tsubaki could hear her. "Please don't say anything to Soul."

A knowing smile made it's way onto Tsubaki's face. "Okay."

She then stood up and shook Black Star lightly on the shoulder. "C'mon Black Star, we have to get up for school tomorrow. And Maka needs to rest."

Cutting off his ranting about his superiority to Soul, he straightened up and nodded to both him and Maka. "See ya tomorrow." Then he proceeded to walk briskly towards the still open door. Tsubaki waved goodbye and followed her meister outside, shutting the door behind her.

"Well," Maka stretched, wincing when it caused a pain in her shoulders, and faked a yawn, "They're right, we have school tomorrow. So good night Soul."

"Wait Maka, you still haven't told me—" SHUT. He didn't know how she'd been able to walk so fast with her injuries.

"Damn." He turned around and headed off to his own room.

_ I'll just get it out of her tomorrow_.


	3. 3 Resolve

"Maka…"

"…"

"Makaaa…"

"…"

"Damn it, Maka! Will you quit ignoring me and just telling me what's going on with you?"

The meister stopped and spun around so fast her pig tails slapped Soul right in the face. "Will you just leave it, Soul? I told you it wasn't important!"

He glared as he rubbed his cheek to ease the stinging. "I'm not falling for it Maka. It's still bothering you. I can see it. What I can't see is any plausible reason for you to keep bottling it up to yourself when I'm here trying to get you to talk about it!"

Both Maka and Soul stood opposite each other, seething: her from his annoying persistence and him by her stubborn silence and denial. They were currently in a deserted hallway at DWMA, school having let out hours ago. They'd stayed due to Maka's attempt at ignoring Soul by reading for several hours straight. Unfortunately for her, he'd stayed the entire time. Surprisingly not dozing off and managing to fix an intimidating stare upon her (yes, the whole few hours) until she shut her book and stood up to go home.

They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, until Soul sighed and turned away from her. "Fine, you don't wanna tell me. Bottle it up for all I care. " He then proceeded to head for the exit.

Anger turned to regret as Maka stared at the back of messy white hair. At that moment she wished she could tell him everything. An arm reached out to call him back, but the meister forced it back down. Even if she wanted to tell him everything, even if he was thinking she wasn't able to trust him anymore, how could she? Break the bonds of partnership and friendship just because of some stupid emotions? No. It was best this way.

The ride home was so long. Even as she wrapped tightly against Soul to prevent from falling off the bike, she felt this was the farthest their souls were from each other in a long time. He didn't even say goodnight before sliding his bedroom door shut.

She could feel the salt threatening to spill from her eyes. Sniffling, Maka made her way to her room, but not before shooting Soul's door another lasting glance.

* * *

The next day at school wasn't any better. Soul was choosing to give her the silent treatment the whole morning and even after they'd arrived to school. A constant twinge in her chest was starting to plague Maka every time she'd see him purposefully turn away from her.

Ignoring her problem was getting even more difficult.

At lunch, Tsubaki decided to ask her about what was going on. All their friends had obviously noticed a difference in their relationship and they could perceive that it was more than their usual fights.

"Maka, what's going on?"

The meister drew out a long, miserable sigh before answering. "It's all my fault. Soul's really mad at me, and I really can't do anything about it."

Surprised, the demon weapon inquired. "Why's he mad? It's not about what we were talking about before right?"

"Sort of…I've just…realized some things. But I can't tell him because I don't want to ruin things and now I think he thinks I don't trust him anymore. I really wish I could tell him…it's just…"

The taller woman touched Maka's shoulder, "Y'know, I think I can guess what you're talking about. And I'm thinking that telling him won't ruin anything. In fact, I think he'll be sort of happy about it."

Snapping her head up to look at her friend, Maka's face showed nothing but disbelief. "I don't think that'll be the case…"

Tsubaki smiled. "I'm sure it will be."

Inching closer til her mouth was close to Maka's ear she continued. "And I wasn't going to tell you this but I think he feels the same too."

Red made it's way up to Maka's face. "No no no no no no. You've got to be kidding! I mean there's no way that Soul would ever—"

Tsubaki held a hand up to stop her. Keeping the smile on her face, she winked. "Just trust me."

That's all it took for Maka to calm down. She knew that her friend wouldn't joke about anything like this. However, she was still unsure. Looking away she stated, "Well, I'm still not sure about Soul. But I should probably just tell him. He's gonna hold a grudge until I do anyway."

"Good. Seriously, I think he'll be more accepting than you think he'll be, Maka."

Returning her smile now, Maka started walking ahead of her friend. "I hope so." She stopped in front of the girl's lavatory door. "Well, go ahead and meet up with the others. I won't be long."

Tsubaki gave her one last smile of encouragement and went off.

* * *

"YOU BITCH!"

Then next thing she knew, Maka was on the ground with a throbbing pain in her cheek. God, that girl could punch.

Maka had walked into the bathroom, quickly noticed by the other girls leaning in front of the mirrors. While primping up their faces and hair, one of them saw her in the mirror and gave a signal.

"Maka Albarn."

She looked to the three of them and raised a brow. "Excuse me, do I know you?"

The girl who'd said her name scoffed. "Figures, Princess-pigtails is too good to know our names."

Now this was uncalled for. Princess-what?

"I'm sorry. Can I help you with anything?"

The girls were slowly walking towards her now and unconsciously she'd started to step backward. What seemed like the leader of the group smirked. They'd backed her in a corner now.

"Yea, you can help us." Her eyes narrowed menacingly, but she still kept that awful smirk. "You can help us by breaking off your little partnership with Soul. He's obviously too good for you."

Oh, god. Maka thought. Freaking fangirls.

"No." she answered bluntly. "Our partnership is none of your business. And we're not breaking it anytime soon."

The challenge in her eyes turned the smirk into a sneer.

"Cut the crap," she growled. "Everyone knows that you're no good for him. Someone as weak as you. You're probably in love with him aren't you?"

Her chest twinged a bit.

"Well DREAM ON, bitch. He's too good for a nerdy, little bookworm like you. So you might as well end it before you get yourself hurt."

Sensing her guard was down, Maka took this chance to kick the girl back in the stomach. She stumbled back and looked up to see Maka staring down at her indifferently.

"I'm sorry to say, but no matter what you do this little _bookworm_ still remains Soul's partner. And _as_ his partner, I know that he'd never consider working with any one of you, who'd resort to these pathetic tactics to try to scare me."

"YOU BITCH!"

Then next thing she knew, Maka was on the ground with a throbbing pain in her cheek. God, that girl could punch.

The girl was now standing over with a contemptuous stare.

"Pfft, you think you're so great. But it doesn't matter how great you think you are. You're weak! Soul will leave you one day. Some day he'll realize."

And with that the three girls sauntered out of the bathroom, leaving Maka, with her stinging cheek, on the floor.

* * *

_Huff Huff_

_…_

_Soul, where are you?_

After the little bathroom incident, Maka had run immediately to look for Soul. Despite her previous resolve to not listen to anything of what that girl said. The last thing she'd spouted before they left struck a chord with her. She'd managed to trigger one of Maka's only insecurities in her partnership with the death scythe. And with how their relationship was now, she needed to see him. Tell him everything. Anything. All she need now was his words of reassurance on their partnership.

She'd found their friends only to to be disappointed. Tsubaki had flashed her an apologetic look and said that he'd decided to wander off on his own to think about things. In the mood he was in, no one dared to call him back.

And now she was running around the school looking for him. With his distinct features she wondered why she hadn't found him ye—

_Soul_

Finally! She spotted a glimpse of him and as she turned the corner she stopped.

Standing with him was a girl who seemed about their age. Long dark hair and a petite body. They seemed to be talking about something. The girl was twiddling her fingers and staring down at his feet.

Of course. Maka thought. She hid behind the corner and waited for them to finish.

Soul always rejects these anyway. They should hurry it up so I can talk to him already.

"Maka?"

Looking up she met gazes with familiar red eyes. But she was surprised to see that there was no longer any trace of anger in them.

Springing up she prepared to greet him. "Soul! I was just trying to find you so that I could—" What?

Looking over Soul's shoulder, she saw that same girl standing behind him.

"Soul, who is?.."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" He turned to push the silent girl in front of him. Maka'd never seen him so flustered before. At least not with anyone aside from their group of friends.

Eyeing the girl strangely she looked to Soul, who seemed to have…a blush on his face?

He flashed his sharp teeth in a smile and broke Maka's heart clean in two.

"Maka, I'd like you to meet Atami. My girlfriend."


	4. 4 Reaction

Maka walked quickly into their apartment, making sure to keep herself faced away from her partner.

What Soul told her back there. That girl. Them. Together. She'd realized she'd been silent for a few moments too long and it had taken all of her willpower to restrain the anger, tears, and scream that threatened to burst out of her...and smile. She'd managed to choke out a happy sounding congratulations. Hopefully that's what it sounded like anyways. Then she'd excused herself and explained to Soul that she came to find him because she was feeling pain in her back and opting to leave early to rest.

That was supposed to be the end of it.

She was supposed to leave them to their new relationship. Run to the apartment and slam the door shut behind her. Try to claw her eyes out to somehow try to coax the broken dam in her eyes repaired and dry. Eventually sleep the rest of the day to calm herself down and finally manage to go along with her plan so that she could stay partners with Soul and accept his...girlfriend.

But no. That's what the world told her. NO. Because instead of doing all that he'd followed her, to make sure she was alright. Said goodbye to...that girl...and tried to get her to explain her pains to him. Unknowingly the real cause of the almost physically painful numbness that her body started to seep slowly from her chest into the very ends of her fingertips, he decided to make the situation **harder** by continuing to be the kind-hearted, worrying best friend that had the misfortune to fall for.

How could he? Just how could he do this to he—...no, it was bound to happen. That's why she didn't dare to hope in the first place. Why she tried to cover it up. But did he still have to care about her? Why couldn't he just magically morph into the biggest douche-bag on Earth so she have SOME reason to hate him. Please. Just one. Then she could forget. She could move on because he would be the total opposite of the perfect that she'd taken to describing Soul's entirety.

"Here, let me help you to your room." She felt him reach for her elbow and swiftly turned away, somehow standing five feet from where they stood before.

Normal. Normal tone. "I'll be okay on my own."

"What? You're in pain, Maka. Apparently in enough of it to ask to leave school early. Do you know how bad that is? And now you're trying to make it seem okay?"

Crap, he was right. Maybe she could have afforded to let out a small percent of the pain in her voice. But then how could she hold back the rest, trying so hard to reveal her right then and there?

She lightly touched her elbow, feeling a burn where he'd barely grabbed hold of her. "I'm just being cautious. We're already off missions because I was stupid enough to get injured. No need to make it worse and prolong our work." _And my distractions._..

It was then that Maka heard a loud cracking sound behind her. Whipping her head around, her eyes widened to see Soul staring at her with the angriest expression she'd ever seen on his face. His arm was stretched out to show that he had just punched his fist right through the wall.

"Maka," he started. His voice was low, calm, but she could feel every bit of rage and anger that he was feeling at that moment. "You've been acting weird for weeks...," she couldn't read his eyes, "refusing to tell me anything..." what emotion was she seeing?, "dodging me when I ask you what's wrong..." and now his voice is rising, "and now you're blaming yourself for an injury that could clearly happen to **ANY OTHER MEISTER?**"

Flinching, she simply stared. His glare glued her to her spot, disabling her of both movement and speech.

He unhooked his arm from the wall and walked determinedly towards her. Olive locked with his seething garnets and she could only wait for his next move.

Now with their faces only inches apart, he grabbed hold of her wrists.

"I'm tired of these games, Maka." He tightened his hold on her, though unnecessary because she still could not register how her legs were supposed to work.

"Now just tell me..." His volume dropped to a soft pleading.

"What's going on?"

That's when the dam broke.

All the water in her body seemed to be pushing it's way out through her tear ducts. She started sobbing so hard that all her brain functions were focused on ragged breathing and trying to hold back the waterfalls. Her legs gave out and one of her wrists slipped out her hand to hide her face.

Her partner froze. Staring down at his meister, reduced to this sobbing mess of a girl because of her secrets...his prodding. All the anger he had before was forgotten. He lowered himself in front of her, allowing her to take back her other arm and using a hand to smooth out her hair comfortingly.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry..." she managed to say. He readied himself for what she was going to say next.

"I'm so sorry," standing up swiftly, she knocked Soul back a few inches.

"I just...I just can't."

And with that she ran to her room, locking the door behind her.

Soul could only stare, unable to muster up the gall to follow her in fear of breaking her even more.


End file.
